Flower Girls

This weekend Leigh and Avery were in a wedding. A sweet girl from Ricky's work wanted them to be her flower girls since she began planning her wedding two years ago. She just loves the girls and we were honored to have them in her wedding! They did not have very far to walk so that was good and they were supposed to drop rose petals along the way. Leigh did well dropping hers but Avery only dropped hers by accident (a few people sitting by the aisle told me she said, "Uh Oh, I dropped 'em". I guess I didn't clarify :)

Suess on the Loose and Titus turns One!

We had a great Dr. Suess celebration for Titus' 1st birthday and we actually had a visit from the Cat in the Hat himself!






We love you Titus and have enjoyed who you have become so much! Your sisters love you and take care of you in small ways that I cherish like when you are crying Avery says, I'm wight here titus, I'm wight here" even if she is across the room, and Leigh likes to make you laugh by putting on her vampire teeth and when you do she does it over and over! You love your Daddy hands down and I think I love it the most when he comes home and you walk to him with your arms stretched out above your head saying, "Daee, Daee, Daee!" We love you little man!


We had Titus tested for food allergies and found out he is allegic to milk, eggs, and bananas. His celiac test came back normal but I'm still not convinced that he doesn't have a gluten intolerance so we are working on eating glutten free to see if there might be a difference in his sleeping. We'll let you know :)

OUR LITTLE LORENA LEOPARD

Leigh started kindergaten! She is loving every minute of it! Last week she got the reward for the "Best Rester" (they have a short rest time)! And this week she got to take home Franklin the turtle stuffed animal, the movie, and the book for the night! You should have seen her face when she got in the car and told me what was in the yellow school bus bag! This girl was made for kindergarten!

A new phase

Oh how behind I am on keeping the blog thing going! I think I am going to blame it on my 11month old who still doesn't sleep through the night, do you think that is good enough excuse? So much has taken place this summer, so many fun things with fun pictures but of course they are either just sitting nicely in a file labeld "my pictures" in the computer or in my camera. Here is a run down on what we have been up to with intentions of getting pictures to match that I may or may not get to. ( I really don't like being this way, totally goes against my wanting-to-accomplish-things nature, but it is what it is these days :)

-Got kids room switched, painted, decorated! I love them!
-Celebrated our big 4th of July tradition at our house again this year! Always fun! The fireworks show was best ever!
-We went to Pine Cove Family camp in Tyler, Tx for the second summer in a row! Loved it even better than last year, look forward to next year!
-Had 3rd annual girls weekend in Dallas! (All girls 18 yrs and older on my dads side of the family gettogether) What a blast! Saw great musical Granbury Live, in Granbury, TX. A must see if you are in the area.
-Leigh celebrated her 5th birthday with a treat to Build-A-Bear with her cousin Bailey and then an all girl swim party at our house. My little girl is growing up!
-My dad is working in San Antonio so my family and my sister and her family took a trip to Sea World. We all got a surprise visit from my brother who has been in Afghanistan for 6 months. He was waiting at the hotel for us when we got back from Sea World that evening. It was such a sweet time, we were not expecting him for another week!
-Spent the next week in Duncanville with my family and spending time with my brother!
He looks so good and slim! What a handsome man!
-LEIGH STARTED KINDERGARTEN THE NEXT WEEK! I can't believe it but she is in her second week of K! She loves it! I wasn't really sad or emotional to drop her off. I knew she would love it, I just felt really good about it. She has a great teacher and it has been nothing but great since the first day! I did get a little emotional though when I picked her up through the line and when she hopped in the car she looked at me and said with a hugh smile on her face, "don't cry momma kindergarten is cool!" I just knew she was in her element and it made me happy that she was so happy! It has been nice to have time with Avery and Titus too!
-The next weekend we went back to Dallas because Ricky's brother and his wife had their first baby, a little girl name Rachel Beth! What a tiny little bundle of sweetness! His cousin and highschool friend of mine who lives there had their first baby too, a little boy name Reid Aaron! They were two doors down from each other. It was a baby weekend!

I am enjoying the school routine and structure for now! Mother's Day Out starts tomorrow for Avery and Titus! Avery has been asking when she can go to school so I know she will love her "school" too! I look forward to getting alot of things done and accomplished ( like getting my hair done :) and finishing projects, maybe even keep up with the blog :)!!

Titus and 10 months!

I thought I might give an update on Titus because as I was reading through some of my posts and I realized that there were really not very many happy posts of the T-man lately. To be honest I didn't really have any happy updates just more of the same. I did find out on my own that he has a milk intolerance (a horrilbe weekend of Graduates Lil' Crunchies with whey in them gave it away). I kind of had a feeling any way and stayed away from dairy and we switched to a hypoallergenic formula. He has definetly responded to the formula. He is a wonderful, happy, smiley, active, sweet, loveable, on and on, little boy during the day, I just want to eat him up! He even takes good naps but at night I wanted to pull my hair out. For months I was getting up 3-4 times a night and it was evident that his stomach was always upset at night, burping, gas, crying, oh the crying! I was constantly trying to find some consistent thing that was causing him pain but never could. Finally we went to the GI specialist after making the appointment two months ago. After talking to the docter about Titus' symptoms (fussiness at night, gassy, coughing, congestion during the day) he still felt we were dealing with Reflux which we tried to treat when he was 3-4 months old to no avail. He did think that Titus has a milk intolerance that will probably go away after a year old and brought to my attention that when we tried the reflux medicine he was not on the hypoallergenic formula. In other words we were only treating part of the problem. Which totally makes since. He wanted us to try the reflux med again for a couple more months. We have now been treating the milk intolerance and relux for two weeks and it really does seem to be helping. He has slept all night 2 nights out of the week and only getting up once the other nights. A huge improvement! And I am beginning to feel human again, I have even been to the "Y" (YMCA)!I feel that we are on our way to good things! These past 10 months have been some of the hardest ever but I could not love this guy any less! I have loved you everyone of your 10 months T-Man!



We take our eyes off for one second and what does he find? MUD!


What? I'm not supposed to play in the mud?


Please!?!

A few Updates!

We are doing well, just busy! The summer is full and hot! Here are few of our sweet little moments and highlights of the summer!

Avery and Leigh started Gymnastics for the summer and this is Avery's first time. I think she was too excited because she could hardly sit still and I chased her all over the place.

We couldn't start the summer off without Avery taking another trip to get stitches (the clinic this time) after an encounter with the corner of the couch. It's Avery in our family, who is it in yours?
Titus is as active as ever! He just tonight let go and stood for a few seconds on his own - I feel the nightmare of me just running forever after my kids coming on! You know, the one where you run like crazy to catch your kids but you can never catch them and they are just laughing at you? - you never have those? I guess its just me! :)
These are my most favorite moments!
My precious neice Bailey had her 6th birthday at my house. She had a Tinkerbelle birthday and my sister made it so sweet and special! All her kiddos were at my house that week for VBS! It was a fun week!
Aren't these cupcakes so cute! Andrea made them and the kids loved them! The girls couldn't stop talking about which one they were going to eat.
Silly little cousins! They just love each other!
The crew of little ones, minus Titus! Bo, Ben, Bailey, Brady, Leigh, and Avery
We went to celebrate the Baptism of little Pahten, my sister and her husband's foster baby. They have cared for her and loved her since she was 2 weeks old. She is now 4 months and the sweetest best baby!
The boy cousins. Aren't they handsome! Ben, Brady, Bo, and Titus.
The whole gang and sweet Emma in the middle!
The family at the Baptism minus my brother Mitchell who is in Afghanistan. Love you and miss you Mitch!
We are now getting ready for our big fourth of July weekend! Then we are off to Pine Cove! Have a fun summer and I hope to be back soon!

Whoa Boy!

He is 7 months old, has been crawling since he was 5 1/2 months, before he could even sit up on his own. In one day he:

Learned to sit up,


Get on his knees,


One knee,


And pull himself up!


At this rate, we will be walking before the summer is over and then we can officially declare me having a any kind of life outside of my little lovies-OVER! So if you see this dazed and confused, sloppy, not matching, wrinkled, worn out mommy please just disregard but please still be my friend! :)

Bumps and Bruises

We have had a rough month of bumps and scrapes. First Avery slipped in the kitchen and cut open the skin just above her eye. (word to the wise, don't go to the emergency room unless it is absolutely an emergency. We thought she needed stitches but they just glued her up and said it would have probably been fine to heal on its own - Great! You wouldn't believe how much it cost!)

Leigh decided to ride her bike with a very heavy bag of rocks she collected so off she went but she didn't get far before the rocks pulled her down and she kissed the concrete. Results: bloody scraped faced, busted lips, bloddy nose, and a chipped tooth.

My poor girls! I can only imagine what Titus will get himself into.

Volcano Newsletter

I get these emails from Shepherd Press every now and then and honestly I rarely read them, but tonight I thought I would check this one out. What a wonderful reminder to stop and reflect on the glory of God and all His splendor! I love, truely love, our theology and our doctrine that God is the maker and creator of all things and that nothing escapes His hand. All thing work together for our good! It is a truth that brings me peace and joy, fills me to overflowing, steadys my feet and makes me see clearly even in the midst of hardship. But when life becomes too cloudy, please Lord, wipe the ash from our hearts remind us again that You are Mighty and Purposeful! Enjoy!



Shepherd Press
Newsletter 89
April 19,2010

A Volcano and Intended Consequences

Humans have problems seeing the implications of their own actions. We frequently try to solve one problem and inadvertently create other, unintended problems. One classic example is the introduction of Kudzu vines in the South to combat erosion. Today, over two million acres of forested land in the Southern states are covered with the Japanese import. The University of Florida says that “Kudzu will grow over anything in its path (other plants, buildings, road signs) and eventually kill other plants it covers because it blocks out sunlight. Kudzu will also girdle stems and tree trunks, break branches, and uproot trees and shrubs through the masses of vegetation produced. Kudzu has been reported to grow roughly one foot per day once established.” This certainly qualifies as an unexpected consequence! This is what humans, with good intentions often do.
God, however, is different. There are no unexpected consequences to his actions. There are no random happenings. He has no "oops" moments. So, when God purposed for a volcano in Iceland to begin a series of eruptions this month, he was not at all surprised or chagrined that the ash clouds billowing upward from the volcano would disrupt travel in Northern Europe and America. Indeed, thousands of travelers have been stranded, business appointments delayed, and weddings rescheduled. The finely pulverized ash not only diminishes visibility, but also can damage jet engines. Air traffic was scheduled to begin being restored Tuesday, April 20, but today’s eruptions have put those plans in doubt.
You may recall that in an earlier newsletter this winter we looked at Job 37:5-7:
God's voice thunders in marvelous ways;
he does great things beyond our understanding.
He says to the snow, 'Fall on the earth,'
and to the rain shower, 'Be a mighty downpour.'
So that all men he has made may know his work,
he stops every man from his labor.
While this volcanic event is not snow, the voice of God is certainly thundering. The power unleashed is beyond our comprehension. And like the snow, this volcanic ash falls to the ground, disrupting travel. Many who made what they thought to be definite plans have been frustrated and forced to take refuge in airports. God has once again stopped a large cross section of humanity from its labor.
The question still remains, what will we learn from God’s intended consequences? So far this year God has used huge snowfalls, earthquakes and one little-thought-of volcano to bring man’s labors to a halt. As the hurricane season approaches, there is a real possibility that just one moderately large storm could dramatically alter life on the East Coast of the United States. Imagine a series of earthquakes, volcanic eruptions and hurricanes all occurring within days of each other. Such a combination would disrupt life and work for millions.
How do you think people would react to such catastrophic events? Would you expect the news networks to call for people to consider the glory of God and his awesome power as the reason for such events? Might we perhaps consider repentance, instead of only crying out for relief, as an appropriate response to the power of these events?
No, I don’t think we would expect such a response from the news channels. But how about such a response from the church? Surely, God’s people would see such a string of events for what they were? Or would we? God has called us, his church, to be salt and light in a dark world. We live in a world that continues to believe that it can do as it pleases, disregarding the Living God of the Bible. If we are to have an impact for Christ, we must have the highest regard for God—for who he is. It is his voice that thunders from the volcano, from the storm and from the earthquake.
He who has ears to hear, let him hear!

Weekend in the Bluebonnets

And some of today, dancing to Hi-5!